Robert Sassone (23 November 1978 – 21 January 2016) was a French

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling s ...

. He had cancer and took his own life. He rode in the men's Madison at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. He also rode in the

2002 Vuelta a España The 57th edition of the ''Vuelta a España'' (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 7 September to 29 September 2002. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Ait ...

, finishing in 129th place. He was banned from cycling for two years in 2004, after testing positive for

betamethasone Betamethasone is a corticosteroid, steroid medication. It is used for a number of diseases including rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, skin diseases such as dermatitis and psoriasis, allergic con ...

during the Six Days of Nouméa race in New Caledonia.

Death

Sassone was suffering from cancer and took his own life in his native New Caledonia in January 2016, aged 37.

Major results

Road

;2001 : 8th Overall

Circuit des Mines The Circuit de Lorraine is a multi-stage road bicycle racing event held annually in Lorraine, France. Since 2005, it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing compet ...

::1st Stages 4 & 8 ;2002 : 1st Stage 3

Tour du Limousin Tour du Limousin is a 4-day road bicycle race held annually in Limousin, France. It was first held in 1968 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

;2003 : 1st Stage 2

Tour du Poitou-Charentes Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle-Aquitaine is a road bicycle race held annually in the former region of Poitou-Charentes (now Nouvelle-Aquitaine) France. It was first held in 1987 and since 2005 it has been organised as a 2.1 event on the UCI E ...

: 3rd

Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen (Championship of Flanders) or Koolskamp Koerse is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in September in Koolskamp (part-municipality of Ardooie), West Flanders, Belgium. Since 2005, the race is organized as a ...

Track

;1996 : 3rd Six Days of Nouméa (with Jean-Michel Tessier) ;1997 : 2nd Six Days of Nouméa (with Jean-Michel Tessier) ;1998 : 1st Six Days of Nouméa (with Jean-Michel Tessier) ;1999 : 1st UEC_Champion_Jersey

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

UEC European Track Championships The European Track Cycling Championships are a set of elite level competition events held annually for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling, exclusively for European cyclists, and regulated by the European Cycling Union (UEC ...

(with

Damien Pommereau Damien Pommereau (born 12 May 1978) is a French former cyclist, who specialized in track races. He won a bronze medal in the team pursuit at the 2000 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Major results ;1996 : 1st Madison, National Junior Tra ...

) : 1st Six Days of Nouméa (with Christian Pierron) ;2000 : National Track Championships ::1st MaillotFra

Madison (with

) ::1st

Team pursuit (with

Francis Moreau Francis Moreau (born 21 July 1965) is a French former professional racing cyclist from Saint-Quentin. He turned professional in 1989 and retired 12 years later at the end of 2000. A pursuit specialist, Moreau was a frequent medalist and the UCI ...

Philippe Gaumont Philippe Gaumont (22 February 1973 – 17 May 2013) was a French professional road racing cyclist. He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial. In 1997 he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and h ...

and

) ;2001 : 1st Jersey rainbow

, UCI World Track Championships (with

Jérôme Neuville Jérôme Neuville (born 15 August 1975 in Saint-Martin d'Hères, Isère) is a French racing cyclist. He had a break in his track cycling career between 1999 and 2002, during which time he competed on the road as a professional cyclist with the ...

) : National Track Championships ::1st MaillotFra

Points race ::1st MaillotFra

Madison (with Jean-Michel Tessier) : 1st Six Days of Nouméa (with Jean-Michel Tessier) : UCI World Cup ::1st Team pursuit,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

::3rd Team pursuit, Cali ;2002 : 1st MaillotFra

Madison, National Track Championships (with Jean-Michel Tessier) ;2003 : 1st Six Days of Nouméa (with Jean-Michel Tessier) : 2nd Scratch, UCI World Track Championships : 3rd Madison, National Track Championships

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sassone, Robert 1978 births 2016 suicides People from Nouméa French male cyclists New Caledonian male cyclists Olympic cyclists of France Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics French sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in cycling Suicides in New Caledonia